nEMoS (nano Environmental Monitoring System) is a 3D-printed device built following the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) approach. It can be connected to the web and it can be used to assess indoor environmental quality (IEQ). It is built using some low-cost sensors connected to an Arduino microcontroller board. The device is assembled in a small-sized case and both thermohygrometric sensors used to measure the air temperature and relative humidity, and the globe thermometer used to measure the radiant temperature, can be subject to thermal effects due to overheating of some nearby components. A thermographic analysis was made to rule out this possibility. The paper shows how the pervasive technique of additive manufacturing can be combined with the more traditional thermographic techniques to redesign the case and to verify the accuracy of the optimized system in order to prevent instrumental systematic errors in terms of the difference between experimental and actual values of the above-mentioned environmental parameters.
While the Italian standard UNI 11235:2015 establishes minimum performance criteria, the thermal resistance of the growing medium of green roofs is not included in national regulations. Instead, thermal transmittance limits for roofs are obtained by referring to other stratigraphic layers. In the absence of specific national and international standards for laboratory calculations of the thermal performance of growing media for green roofs, a multi-year laboratory testing campaign was carried out on 8 samples which aimed to define the thermal resistance reference values of growing media as a function of density and water content. Thermal conductivity varies between 0.046-0.179 W/mK for dry samples as a function of density and between 0.046-0.47 W/mK as a function of moisture content. Defining a reference method, laboratory tests and restitution of the output in performance curves, was based on 108 tests carried out according to and deviating from the standard based on both guarded hot plate and heat flow meter methods. The significance of the results has prompted researchers and industrial partners to engage in further investment and ongoing tests in this area, targeting the definition of a standard laboratory method to be presented worldwide.
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